Jason starts the show with investment counselor Adam as they talk about the housing affordability index. They discuss how the index is created and what goes into it. Then they explore some markets they’re currently investing in. Later on the show, Jason brings on James Whittaker, author of Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy. Whittaker looks at Napoleon Hills book and discusses its impact on today’s world.
Investor 0:00
I do very much credit you with getting me involved in real estate investing. I had tried to do a flip originally that went sideways. And I ended up having a condo that I had rented out after that after a bad flip. And I realized that being a landlord wasn’t all that tough. And eventually, I found you on the web. And that really got me into real estate investing. So thank you for that.
Announcer 0:24
Welcome to the creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You’re about to learn a new slant on investing some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world’s most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine self made multi millionaire who’s actually been there and done it. He’s a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who’s owned properties in 11 states had hundreds of tenants and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help Follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to your financial independence day. You really can do it. And now here’s your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.
Jason Hartman 1:14
Welcome to Episode 11 at 1180. And you all know what that means. This is a 10th episode show where we talk about something of general interest, life success, economic success, and today will be a good example of that. Because we are talking about Think and Grow Rich the legacy, Napoleon hills seminal work, Think and Grow Rich that has been used read cited by so many success teachers over the time over the years over the decades. Anyway, I think you’ll enjoy this interview as a 10th episode show. But before we get to the guest, we’ve got Adam here and Adam wants talk today about something that is very important. And that is the housing affordability index. I think this is really one of the most important metrics to understand the question people always have. Are we in a bubble? Are things going to appreciate a lot more? Or is the market topping out? Is the market declining? Is it a good time to buy? Is it not? Now remember something when we talk about housing affordability, we’re only talking about one side of the investor equation, and that is the prospect for appreciation for capital gains. We are not talking about the prospect for rents, okay, because when housing affordability is low, when it’s bad, that tends to put upward pressure on rents, when housing affordability is high. In other words, when it’s good to buy a house for a home buyer, not a I’m not talking about investors here, then There’s downward pressure on rents, because everybody can afford to buy a house, so they run out and buy. And that sucks the demand out of the rental market. So there you tend to experience some capital appreciation in your property investments. But you tend to experience soft rents soft rental income, whereas when housing affordability is very low, you tend to see either prices be stagnant or even declining, but you tend to see upward pressure on rents. So the beautiful thing about income property, multi dimensional asset class, you can always adjust your strategy. And you always get to renegotiate the deal through time. As I’ve said, Adam, how you doing?
Adam 3:44
I’m doing well, and I thought this was a very important topic, especially as we’re wrapping up the end of our self management week. Excellent. Well,
Jason Hartman 3:51
it is a very important topic. So first, why don’t we go into the formula now I think the formula is overcomplicated. Because I look at housing affordability more simply, but I do look at the index and the index uses the formula. And again, you can get a lot of these stats by going on those internets thing is, you know those Internet’s you’ve heard of it right internet. NAR, the National Association of Realtors keeps really good stats on this type of stuff. Also, the Urban Institute has some good stuff as well, maybe we’ll touch on that before we get to our guest today. Adam,
Adam 4:26
lay it on us. Alright, so first off, you need to know how they’re going to get the necessary monthly income that’s needed. So you take the median home price for the market, and you find the current interest rate for homebuyers and you find out what the monthly payment would be for that home. And then you take the median salary or wages of workers in that market and you find out what that is. Then you take your payments for that hundred thousand dollar whatever home just to stop you for a minute.
Jason Hartman 5:00
I wonder, I think in the index, they take the median household income. So it’s household income, not individual income. So you see how as you go down the rabbit hole of this stuff, there’s a lot of little things that can really move the needle, right? So it’s household income and family
Adam 5:17
income, and then you multiply your payments by 12. Since you have to pay every single month, they tend to require that
Jason Hartman 5:24
they like you to pay every month. But you know, as we saw during the Great Recession, it’s not absolutely necessary. Another topic,
Adam 5:32
you divide that total amount for the payments by the median family income, and you multiply it by 100. And that will give you part of your equation that will tell you the necessary monthly income and whether or not the market can afford it. But then in order to get the housing affordability index, you also take the median family income, and you find out what the qualified income needs to be. And then you multiply that by 100. So if your median income is 30,000, and you only need a qualified income of 20,000,
Jason Hartman 6:07
for that income required to qualify for the mortgage, right?
Adam 6:11
Yes. Okay, so if your payment schedule means you only need a $20,000 income, which you probably never will, and your median family income is 30,000, you divide that you get one and a half, and then you multiply it by 100. And you would end up with an index of 150. So it’s a interesting multi layered equation that essentially is very reliant on the median family income.
Jason Hartman 6:34
Okay, so let me just simplify that because it’s like, you know, all these economists have to justify their existence and the statisticians that do all this stuff, right. And they overcomplicate it, let’s just simplify it okay? Hey, listen, listeners. You know me when we talk about the harder faluting idea of Wall Street derivatives, right? Jason Hartman, he just simplifies everything and calls derivatives. The thing about the thing.
Adam 7:01
So I can simplify it if you need.
Jason Hartman 7:03
Yeah, yeah, no, I know you can. But basically, it’s the median house price, median income, median mortgage payment, right? It’s really forget about the house price. You don’t even need to I mean, it’s a rule of thumb, it’s good to use that one, right? Because
Adam 7:17
you only need the home price so you can get the payment.
Jason Hartman 7:19
Right, right. But if you just take, it’s really just the median mortgage payment versus the median income
Adam 7:26
that determines affordability, right? Divide it, multiply it by 100. To get your your number,
Jason Hartman 7:30
well, then that’s to get the number, right. I’m just talking about what the index means, right? what it means. Okay, so when we look at the number, let’s look at a couple of numbers real quick. Okay. So let’s look at some old numbers. And the reason looking at old numbers is interesting is because we already know what happened, right? If we look at the past, we can really see how things shook out. Let’s look at 2015 numbers. Let’s look at four year olds. The affordability index of existing single family homes for a few metropolitan areas. Adam, you live in Austin, Texas. Okay, the affordability in 2015. For Austin, Texas, that index came in at 165. I’m just going to round it off for speed 165 was the index. So what that means listeners is Austin was affordable, right? You’ve got a place with fairly high incomes and overall fairly low housing prices. I know austinites might not feel that way. But
Adam 8:33
Austin, you know, was pretty cheap. And obviously, since 2015, we saw quite a bit of appreciation and Austin, it’s interesting to look over the years as well if you want to look at housing bubble related, because Austin just in 2013 was 177. And two years later, it’s down to 165.
Jason Hartman 8:50
Right? So that shows you that it was appreciating and incomes were not keeping up. Okay, so that’s a good thing. Now, contrast that to and these are MSA The Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and one MSA where I spent a lot of my life and the vast majority of my adult life was the Anaheim Santa Ana Irvine, California MSA. So, in essence, Orange County, California, which is a ritzy, expensive place, the affordability index in 2015 was only 67. It was terrible, very hard to afford a home in those expensive areas. So you see people are accepting less house for the money. And obviously now that we fast forward four years, we see that that market is really having some severe problems with softening and so forth, because it was overpriced. Even then, it was overpriced. Even then, Adam, you want to pick one more?
Adam 9:45
Yeah, well, I thought it’d be interesting to look at some of the markets that we’re actually purchasing and, and one of those is Memphis.
Jason Hartman 9:51
Memphis has just been a machine and so many of our investors have purchased in Memphis. It’s mind boggling
Adam 9:57
in Memphis has really good numbers. But it’s also trending towards 100. It’s at 230 and 2015. And it’s down to 214 to 15. Right now. So it’s still very affordable, right? It is becoming less affordable, which is good for us. I mean, the rents right now are great, even with numbers around 200. So if it gets down to around 150 100, even, those are beautiful numbers.
Jason Hartman 10:25
Yeah, good stuff. I mean, looking at all of these markets that we like all of these different linear markets around the country that we are recommending to our clients. I mean, the affordability very high in those markets. Now, a good question investors that you might be thinking of right now is Hey, Adam, Jason, if affordability is so high there, and it’s so desirable to buy a house, why are there so many renters? Well, you know, Memphis is a particularly good example of this. And a lot of times in these markets, you have a situation of what we call financial immaturity. When I was starting out in the traditional real estate business many years ago when I was 19, in my first year of college, I remember working with all these first time buyers and investors because I was selling these cheap, ugly, disgusting, literally flea bitten government repo houses with boards on the windows, okay, I’d go in and drive my Volkswagen Jetta up to the house with my client. And we would walk in and I’d show the house with a flashlight. I mean, it was just these houses were, you know, terrible. They were a mess. And they were government foreclosures, HUD VA repo houses. And I got tons of great experience doing this. But one of the things Adam that I totally noticed all the time, not with investors, but with the first time buyers I would work with is they would always struggle with Should we buy a house or should we just keep renting in here was there struggle issue, they would always have to take a step back to take two steps forward. They could never buy is nice a house is they could rent. And so that’s the financial in maturity concept. The willingness to delay gratification for a bigger, better future is the sign of financial maturity. And most people are financially immature, and they would rather rent because they don’t want to take one step back in the house, they’re going to get or maybe take a more expensive monthly payment to take two steps forward. Ultimately, being a home owner would be better for them, right. But that’s the reason. So even in some of these highly affordable markets, where the housing affordability index says, Hey, you should go out and buy a house. A lot of people will just rent because of financial immaturity, that’s a big factor.
Adam 12:53
Low and also if they value if they’re afraid, maybe not necessarily afraid, but if they’re concerned about their job at all. And they think I can put 40% of my income into or 30 to 40% of my income into this home to purchase or 30 to 40% to rent, but I can get away easier if I rent and move to a lower level place to live. That also is a mindset that many of the working middle of lower middle class have. I mean, it can be scary when you take on a two to $300,000 mortgage.
Jason Hartman 13:24
Yeah, yeah, no, no question about it. No question about it. Yeah, you got to take some risk. You got to take a step back to take two steps forward. It’s just part of life. You know, you Nothing happens without taking some risk and stretching oneself. Right? Absolutely. But you know, that first step, just like investing, the first step is the hardest. Yeah, yeah, it definitely is. It gets a lot easier after you take the first step. And as the was that the Russian Olympic figure skater, I can’t remember her name, but she has that great quote. She says the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. So if you’re listening and you have haven’t taken this step. Take it. You will be very happy you did. So Adam, do you know that there is a big, big flaw to the index? I like so much. I do like the housing affordability index quite a bit, but but it has a big flaw. You know how I talked about, you can’t hear the dogs that don’t bark? Well, this is one of those cases. Any ideas on what the flaw might be?
Adam 14:28
I guess the only thing I could see is that what number people actually start buying, since we’ve seen some that have numbers over 100 where people aren’t buying?
Jason Hartman 14:36
Yeah, so So in other words, what housing affordability number causes a rush of buyers to come into the market. And at what number? Are they priced out and do they just kind of give up and say we buyers are exhausted? We’re going on strike. The sellers are too greedy, right? No, that is not what I’m referring to. This is one that I really don’t hear anybody talking about. It is the subject of foreign money of immigrant money, essentially. So you look at a place like Southern California, where I’m from in that market. If people are looking at the housing affordability index, they might at times be puzzled as to how housing has become so unaffordable, and how the index is so unfriendly to buyers. Yet, sales are still proceeding at a good clip. A lot of people are still buying even though the index would tell you the numbers would tell you that this is crazy. Prices are too high, the buyer should be on strike. Well guess what? The index does not compute for foreign money. So in Southern California, especially Irvine where I was in traditional real estate for many, many years, you know, you have a lot of Asian buyers. You have a lot of Middle Eastern buyers. You have a lot of everything. You know, it’s like if you want to figure out what second language you should speak in California. Who the heck knows there’s so many right? It’s impossible to pick. So you’ve got all of this foreign money that is coming into some markets. I mean, coming into all markets, really, because the US is is very friendly to foreign money. We’ve had that discussion. But the index doesn’t account for that. So it has this huge missing component. You can’t hear the dogs that don’t bark. It’s the profound impact of things on scene. So if you’re calculating, okay, here’s the median mortgage payment, and here’s the median household income for a given area. Well, how do you equate for a bunch of wealthy Chinese buyers coming into your market? You don’t? Because it’s not in the index. It’s just not there. That can be a pretty big flaw. Hmm,
Adam 16:47
that would cause a problem. Yeah,
Jason Hartman 16:48
it can really skew the numbers. So see, like everything in life and real estate. Nothing is just like a black and white discussion. There’s all kinds of new wants in all of this stuff. And that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help you sort through that nuance and make more money on your investments. Adam, we got to get to our guest today, but I want to just make a little kind of a plug here. Because one of the things that Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich and his other works talked a lot about was the value of a mastermind group, the value of actually systematically and with intention, choosing your friends, choosing people to mastermind with so that you could grow in your life in every area of your life. And this is a great time to make a little plug for the venture Alliance mastermind group. Now enrollment is closed until the fall will open it up again right before our profits and paradise event which will be in Fort Lauderdale area before our Cuba, Grand Cayman and Jamaica cruise. That is a venture lions cruise but our next event you can can still come as a guest and join us for one of our great mastermind events. Everybody loves these trips. They’re small group trips. We’re going to Savannah, Georgia, and just go to Jason Hartman comm slash v AE M for venture Alliance mastermind Jason Hartman comm slash v AM, the power of a mastermind group is phenomenal, great way to grow in every area of your life. Get around like minded people like minded investors who are doing great things. And just by osmosis, you’re going to grow, it’s going to make your life better. And Heck, if nothing else, you’re going to go into some great vacations and have some great adventures. So join us for that Jason Hartman, calm slash VM. Adam, thank you for all the talk on housing affordability. And let’s go to our guests and talk about Think and Grow Rich.
Jason Hartman 18:59
It’s my pleasure. Welcome James Whittaker, he’s the best selling author of the new book and film, Think and Grow Rich. No, not the original thinking grow rich. This is thinking Grow Rich, the legacy. And it’s great to see someone bringing all of this fantastic. Napoleon Hill content back to life. James, welcome. How are you? Good. Thanks, Jason. How are you? Good, good. It’s good to have you. And so you’re coming to us from my former hometown, Los Angeles, California today, right?
James Whittaker 19:23
very sunny Los Angeles, California, but from Australia originally,
Jason Hartman 19:27
well, we love the accent. I think we have an accent, right? Well, first of all, why don’t you reacquaint our listeners with thinking grow rich? I mean, what’s the big deal about this book? Everybody talks about it. Most people, you know, maybe read it in their younger years. Maybe some people have read it recently.
James Whittaker 19:48
What’s the big deal? It’s really as the godfather of all self help literature for the last you know, it came out it years ago in 1937. And it was written from interviews with more than 500 The most successful most accomplished people of all time people like Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. And the reason it’s still so popular today is because it’s created more millionaires than any other resource in history. It gets incredible results for for the people who read it and take action. And that’s a very, very important distinction because a lot of people read it, and don’t take action, but the ones who really use it as a blueprint, like all the people who we mentioned in this book in the film, they have used that as very much a blueprint to apply consistent action. That is what led them to extraordinary achievement over time.
Jason Hartman 20:38
And so is there a reason a secret sauce to Think and Grow Rich? Of course, I’ve read, Think and Grow Rich, but I want to ask for my own refreshment and everybody’s benefit. Is there a reason that this particular book causes people to take more action? Then other self help or success books? I mean, there’s no shortage. gurus and books and everything out there, right? What’s really the key distinction? It’s very practical,
James Whittaker 21:05
it’s not airy fairy. And in the last 30 or 40 years, there have been some come out especially where the law of attraction is related. And I’m a huge fan of the law of attraction that you can’t think of a Ferrari and then 30 seconds later have it in your, you know, in your car parked downstairs, there was a Come on,
Jason Hartman 21:22
that’s what they said in the secret, all I have to do is think it and it will be it will happen.
James Whittaker 21:27
That’s right. So I’m really trying to bring out a lot of stuff back and it actually requires an enormous amount of hard work, but also a burning desire to achieve it. But all the people in this project have proven it is the consistent application of a proven set of success principles. That is what makes people successful. So there is a lot to it. But thinking Grow Rich is highly practical. And another big theme of it is that irrespective of any perceived disadvantage or misfortune that you have everything you need to succeed already in your possession right. Now you just need to figure out a way to put that into deliberate, purposeful action consistently. And over time, you will see those results. So a lot of people who haven’t read thinking Grow Rich might have heard of things like persistence, and decision and the mastermind principle and they all came from thinking Grow Rich 80 years ago that all the as you said, all the self help gurus today still talk about
Jason Hartman 22:22
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So I don’t want to belabor too much the original work, I want to bring it into modern modern day if we if we can. But, you know, one principle that I would say is especially powerful is the mastermind principle. My life just took a huge leap forward. And I’ve done it over the years, you know, a long time ago in my early 20s. I masterminded a little bit, but when I joined formal mastermind groups that I had to pay a lot of money for. I found that that was really, really an up leveling in my life. was already very successful. But it just took it to a whole nother level when I did that, talk to us a little bit about that mastermind principle, if you would,
James Whittaker 23:08
it talks about the sum of the parts is much better than one individual part and example that I’ll use in my speeches is that Elon Musk, he didn’t build any of the Tesla cars. He doesn’t build any of the rockets that takes SpaceX into orbit. And Steve Jobs didn’t build the iPhone or the iPad. What those two did was they surrounded themselves with people who aligned with their values and who could help bring their dreams to life. And that that is a really extreme version of the mastermind principle. But if you dial that right back to wherever you are in your life right now, who around you can help you get to that next step. And so many people, they pause and I end up with inaction because they worried about trying to find a major business CEO, or a former president to be their mentor when all you really need is someone who can help you think bigger than your circumstances provide you with an Knowledge and the expertise that you may be don’t have who can help you take one, two and three steps forward. And maybe you can surround yourself with people who can help you moving forward even more than that. So it really depends on where you’re at. But like you mentioned, in your own example, Jason, the people who become successful, it’s easy for us to then say, all right, well, I’m successful, I’m going to rest in my comfort zone, I think I’ve done enough in my life, and I deserve a beer on the couch or to be able to have a whole weekend watching TV, but the ones who then go and seek out bigger and better masterminds to really increase their own skills and increasingly become a person of value that then enables him to positively contribute the to the causes I care about, to their families, to the community to everything. So I’m really big on increasingly becoming a person of value. And there is no better way to do that, that I know of them through the mastermind principle.
Jason Hartman 24:53
Yeah, I would agree with you. And interestingly, I have a feeling you’re going to agree with us but you didn’t say it. I just find that the masterminding principle, of course, one little connection, one little tip can make all the difference. But the other huge part of it, in my opinion is the example part. The part of you know, it’s like Jim Rohn has that great quote, he says your income will be the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. And if we just let our friends and associates kind of happened by accident the way the vast majority of people do, and I did for so many years, it’s just going to be hit and miss right? versus if we specifically plan that we are going to uplevel our associates, our friends or our crowd, if you will. And then we just see by example, you know, this person doing this, that and the other thing that maybe we want to do, or we want to do something of similar caliber, they’re just a regular old person, just like me, in that example, like, I don’t know, it brings it into reality in the subconscious. I think that is just huge. Maybe I’m not explaining it well. But there’s something big to that,
James Whittaker 26:07
if you definitely Yeah. And then I could, I could break everything down that you said there and talk about three classes. The first thing that you spoke about was living with intent. And the opposite of that is reacting to the day. So all the people who I interviewed for this book, they have this not only unwavering self belief, but they also have a very clear intent of who they are, what contribution they’re going to make to the world. And I take daily action to achieve it. So and by doing so, they go through life with this air of confidence that other people don’t have. And in doing so, they attract the people who can help them get to that next level because they are so clear on their purpose, and they naturally attract their tribe. One of the simplest things you can do to be successful is simply to model success. Find out someone who has achieved the success that you desire, find out a way to add value to that. Life and I will help you take that first, a second and a third step to achieve it. Whether that’s owning a business, hosting a podcast show, whatever it might be. Modeling success is one of the easiest ways to do it. And of course renting out your days by living with intent, and with purpose and passion getting very clear on what you want. It’s so important. Yeah,
Jason Hartman 27:20
it really it really is. But there’s like a even more than modeling, like, take that another step. You know, the old Tony Robbins success leaves clues? Of course it does. And modeling is great. But it’s just being in the context. being around people that are doing stuff just brings it all into reality and makes it so much more possible for all of us. I think that’s just an incredibly incredibly important so
James Whittaker 27:49
yeah, absolutely. Isn’t it another point on that as the environment as you mentioned, that you hang around, it’s if your goal is to lose weight, there’s no point having hundreds of cans of Coca Cola sitting in your fridge. If you want to be a positive person, there is no point hanging around negative people. If you want to be financially free, there is no point spending all your time with people who are terrible with their money, that environment not only the physical environment that we live in, but also where are we directing our energy each day? Is it towards negative relationships, people who are either causing stagnation or possibly even for us to stay in that comfort zone or even go back? Are you surrounding yourself with people who can help you get out of your comfort zone, align with the values of who you truly are and make it happen? Yeah,
Jason Hartman 28:34
yeah. good points. good points. Okay. bring this into the modern world. I mean, obviously, you know, the book is called Think and Grow Rich, the legacy and it says the film, what do we do today? Is everything in there still valid? Or do we have to modify it for life today? Obviously, the world has changed dramatically.
James Whittaker 28:54
It hasn’t. It hasn’t. It hasn’t.
James Whittaker 28:57
Certainly, certainly technology has changed. Enormous wise in the last 18 years are about the same though. That’s right, except in a big thing that we do now is we sit there and we spend hours looking for instant gratification on social media news feeds just waiting for that yearning for that one new log or that one share or comment to come through. But the whole idea of thinking Grow Rich, the legacy, is it people today just don’t naturally identify as much with Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison as they did 80 years ago. So we’ve got people like Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank, Grant Cardone, Rob Dyrdek, Bob Proctor, Lewis Howes, the Hall of Fame quarterback, Warren moon, we’ve got a whole mix of people from all over the world, a very eclectic mix of people from all backgrounds. And there really is something for everyone in this book, they can learn from these stories, but what I’ve tried to do with the book is introduce the original achievement philosophy. That’s what Napoleon Hill wrote as 13 success principles. He coined the achievement philosophy so those principles have remained exactly the same, except I have written an overview of each of those principles to start each chapter, which brings them into a modern context. It references people like Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Blakely, who’s the youngest self made billionaire, the navy seals that references all those different people and groups to introduce it into a modern context. But then goes into detail via a collection of stories over people who are able to draw a line in the sand in their life, and say, here’s what I want to do. And this is how I’m going to get it. And so the stories really show who they were before they encountered this defining moment, and what steps they took to achieve their success. Good stuff. So
Jason Hartman 30:46
tell us about some of those steps that these people have taken that have been defining. I mean, well, I guess maybe let’s unpack that just a little bit. Is there even a defining moment really, I find that life is just a big progression, you know, a lot of people that are sort of into these get rich quick schemes that never work. They sort of by that defining moment, I’m not picking on you for saying that I’m just, you know, it’s a good expression. But, you know, success is just this progressive thing, right? It’s like, we got to get up and every day, you know, do the thing that most people won’t do, we got to slog it out, and make the effort and show up, you know, 80% of success is just showing up right As the old saying goes, and all of this kind of stuff, but we got to be ready, because opportunities will come. And if we’re not ready, we will miss them. Right?
James Whittaker 31:37
Yeah, well, I could tell that you’re a half glass half full kind of guy, Jason because it’s, it’s a lot of people. When you’re talking about progressing through life. There are many people who simply going through the motions, maybe they’ve lost a business or gone through a divorce and they go through life with their inner voice completely muffled and they have this chip on their shoulder and can get increasingly bitter. You know, the health suffers and everything else suffers as a result of that domino effect of not caring that all the people in this book they thought so much bigger than their circumstances. And their defining moment in many cases is actually what was the worst thing that ever happened to them at that time. So an example would be Jim Stovall, who some people might know, at the age of 17. Jim was told that he would go totally and permanently blind and there was nothing they could do about it. And he did three years later, he went blonde, and after that, he was basically confined to a small room, given a white cane and told a car his days in his room where he would be safe, and he surrounded himself with the right people, and which is the perfect definition of the mastermind principle, and he has since written 30 best selling books war blind. Wow, he is the Emmy Award winning founder of the narrative TV network, which provides TV and programming solutions for blind and visually impaired people in a dozen countries around the world. So when I see people who can see and have all their other have a lot more resources than Jim had back in the day, especially with technology, and I say I can’t write a book, there is just no excuses to why anyone can’t, you know, figure out a story that they want to tell and then find a way to write a book. So that’s another big thing we try to do with this project is just show people that if you think you cannot do something, it’s because of a limited beliefs. And those limiting beliefs have then determined your actions and then you act small. But if you start to reprogram your brain to thinking 10 times or 100 times bigger than your circumstances and just reading this book, or watching the movie is a great way to see what’s possible. That is how you can step into that mode of being who you really are and going after what you truly want and also being able to positively impact so many people along the way.
Jason Hartman 33:53
Fantastic. Tell us a little bit about the What did you call it a docu drama, the film if you will. Is the companion to the book? Is it really covering the same stuff for? I’m sure they’re a little different, right?
James Whittaker 34:05
It is. Yeah, it’s a feature length docu drama. So it’s actually got reenactments of some of the stories that were included in the original thinking grow rich. So the Henry Ford, Chicago Tribune, courtroom scene is great. We’ve got Mary McLeod who ran, I think it was 10 miles to get to school so she could learn to read, and then teach her brothers and sisters how to read. So we’ve got it we’ve got the burning the ship story is, is out there. So that’s the film. It’s very, very gripping, and very, very engaging, because it is a big budget movie where people really get engrossed in it. And the book is different because it really goes into the stories of some of these modern day people who have been able to achieve extraordinary success, despite very humble beginnings, and in many cases, the most tragic of circumstances. So there’s, we’ve got 25 stories mentioned in this book, and there is no way that any reader won’t find themselves in at least one of these stories. That is A lot of opportunities in here for people who can identify and relate in their own life and come up with steps on how to achieve much grander success as they define it.
Jason Hartman 35:09
Yeah. Fantastic. You mentioned a couple minutes ago, you talked about reprogramming your mind. And you talked about the cycle that occurs when one does that. Can you just touch on that? Again? I think that’s so critically important.
James Whittaker 35:24
Well, an example would be when you think about how most people spend their day, so they would wake up when their alarm goes off, and they complain about their alarm. Oh, no, I’ve got to get out of bed. And then they open their phone and they either start looking at their emails where they think oh, no, look how busy I’m going to be today. Well, they look at social media where unfortunately, a lot of negative news is what seems to really make it in the news feeds these days. So they think oh, well what a terrible world we live in. And then they sit in traffic on the way to work and they complain about the traffic then I get to work and I may be complaining about their boss or a work colleague and then they sit in traffic again. On the way home and complain about that. And then when they come home, they talk to their partner or their roommate or whoever. They complain about how bad their day has been and how bad their life is. And all you’ve accomplished at the end of one year is a lot of complaining. But if you wake up and you do something like the Five Minute Journal where you write down three things that you’re grateful for three things that would make today great, you make your bed, you make sure your your apartment or your house is in a good clean condition, you actually enjoy the opportunity to go and make a difference in the workplace will have some great relationships, you have a good relationship with your boss because you have a very clear progression. plan for what you want professionally. And then when you come home and you have a great conversation with your partner or someone you live with, and you’re thankful for being in that moment. And it really is a very, very different mindset because then if hopefully you’re also reading books or listening to podcasts or audio books that will improve your brain and that is what enables you to progress but the ones who are very much Living in a reactionary life, that is where you just feel like you’re treading water. And then that is when you really get stressed out. And people respond to that by just running hot or on the treadmill of life. And what you need to do is take a deep breath, think about who you are, what are your values, who do you want in your life? Where do you want to go and come up with a plan to make it happen? So that’s how you get over those limiting beliefs and living with intent.
Jason Hartman 37:26
Very good. Very good points. Very good points. give out your website and tell people where they can find out more.
James Whittaker 37:31
Yeah, my websites James wit.com. I can check me out on on Facebook. I’ve got an author page there, which is also James with it. How are you spelling? Where’s that? WH Yeah, Wi Fi t t. But yeah, if anyone out there, it’s got some great stories and things or how thinking Grow Rich has changed their own life. I would love to connect as well. Fantastic. James Whittaker, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Jason.
Jason Hartman 37:57
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